Although the Treaty at Ghent was signed in 1814, it still needed to be ratified by Congress; this was done in February of 1815. Still, the Battle of New Orleans, which resulted in an American victory might have been avoided were communications of the era quicker.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate held states that were rebelling. The border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland were not affected. All Union states had either already freed their slaves, or would do so in separate state and federal actions. Slavery was not actually illegal until the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, however.

At the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States gained territory in the Caribbean and the Philippines. Though the United States refused to name these territories as colonies, they essentially treated them as such. Thus joining the Imperialist nations.

“Bleeding Kansas” is a term that refers to the armed conflict between Free Soil settlers and Pro-Slavery settlers to determine the composition of the state’s populace between 1854 and 1858. The makeup of the population became important because the Congress had allowed new states to decide whether to be Free or Slave states with the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The ardent abolitionist John Brown led an attack on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) on October 16, 1859, with the hopes of gaining weapons and support for a widespread slave uprising. In actual fact, Brown's 20 men were quickly counterattacked by local militia, and U.S. troops under Colonel Robert E. Lee managed to kill 10 of Brown's men (including two sons) and capture Brown. Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, but the event stirred passions North and South regarding issues of slavery. In late December, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union, which helped the country on the road to Civil War.

Charles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881, at the Sixth Street Station as Garfield was boarding a train, because Guiteau was dissatisfied that he did not receive a job in the Garfield Administration. Garfield would survive for two more months, but in an incapacitated state, and was replace by his Vice President Chester A. Arthur. Although Arthur benefited and promoted the "spoils system," giving influential positions to political supporters, he encouraged the Congress to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Acts in response to Guiteau's motivations. The Act required open applications and civil service exams for government positions.

Following Nat Turner's slave rebellion, which resulted in the deaths of 55 whites, and no fewer than 100 blacks, there was no largely sympathetic newspaper coverage in the South.

The 1876 was conducted in the shadow of Republican Ulysses S. Grant's disastrous second term and the serious economic troubles that accompanied it. The election pitted Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio against Democratic Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York. Tilden won the popular vote, but the Electoral College vote was contested. A deal was put in place to elect Hayes, but on the condition that Reconstruction end. This pulled troops out of the former Confederate states, rolling back African-American rights, enforcing a white supremacist order, and enacting Jim Crow Laws.

In 1791 Congress passed an excise tax on whiskey at the encouragement of Alexander Hamilton. Many of the frontiersmen, who relied on the sale of whiskey, refused to pay the tax. Hamilton mobilized the militia, and the Whiskey Rebellion died a very quick death. One very important consequence of the Whiskey Rebellion, however, was the complete reversal of popular support in the Western States for the Federalist Party. Instead, they flocked to the Democratic-Republicans and remained largely loyal supporters for several electoral campaigns.

This question is fairly difficult in the abstract, but given the answer choices, it is less difficult here. The election of 1876 involved the disputed votes of 3 states, which in total were worth 20 Electoral College votes. They were disputed because both the Democrats and Republicans claimed them—in other words, the Electoral College was confronted with 20 votes, all of which were claimed by BOTH parties. In order to resolve the discrepancy, the government decided to create an “electoral commission” in order to determine which candidate, Tilden or Hayes, actually won the 20 votes.